Some of the most popular forms of photographic slide projection equipment in use today utilize compartmented magazines for holding a series of slides to be projected. These magazines are usually constructed to provide a plurality of individual compartments each capable of receiving one photographic slide therein. In some magazines the compartments are arranged along a linear path while in other magazines, of the so-called carousel type, the compartments are arranged in a circle to receive the slides in radial relation to the axis of the rotatable magazine.
Usually, each type of magazine is especially adapted for use in conjunction with a projector having powered means for receiving slides from the magazine and for returning the slide to the magazine. The equipment, thus, is highly automated and constitutes a convenient and highly reliable adjunct to a slide presentation. The magazines are, of course, separable from the projector unit and serve as convenient carriers for storing and transporting the series of slides therein.
One of the few shortcomings of compartmented magazine projection equipment is that it is difficult and sometimes frustrating to load slides into the magazine. This is particularly true when the person loading the magazine is simultaneously selecting and editing the slides to be arranged within the magazine. Ideally, the series of slides for a particular presentation should occupy a series of adjacent compartments, so that no blanks are left in the projection sequence. It is not uncommon for the person loading the compartmented magazine to decide, after having inserted several slides, that the next slide selected should appear at some earlier location in the presentation sequence. This then necessitates moving a number of slides into other compartments to make room for the most recently selected slide. When one considers that a compartmented magazine, particularly one of the carousel type, may contain 80 or more slides, the editing and loading procedure may be extremely burdensome. Even if the selection and editing procedure is separated from the loading procedure and the slides arranged in their proper sequence in a simple stack, the loading of the individual slides into the rather close fitting compartments of the magazine requires patience and dexterity.
Although automated photographic slide handling equipment has been devised in the past which would undoubtedly be capable of loading these compartmented magazines, such equipment is by and large far too complex and expensive for use by the average amateur photographer or user of inexpensive projection equipment sold to the general public.